TNA Hardcore Justice PPV match-by-match coverage

Sunday, 08 August 2010 10:09

Welcome to our live coverage of TNA Hardcore Justice from the Impact Zone in Orlando. We're looking for your thoughts on this show as well as last night's UFC 117, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to
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Taz started with a promo. Taz said that there were doubters, they were a bush league promotion, all they were about is violence, if that's what you think you don't get it. We revolutionized this frickin business. We were the true renegades of this industry and that's a shoot. We were the little engine that could and we did. He has a message to anyone who wants to piss on what we did, you didn't get, you'll never get it and you may as well just kiss my ass. He did his beat me if you can, survive if I let you catch phrase.

Not much for wrestling. They did a dance spot to put over the FBI & Sal. Simon Diamond and Tracy Smothers had gained a lot of weight. Everyone else got older. Swinger was in good shape and Guido & Luke looked the same, but older. People enjoyed it. Guido pinned Diamond with what would now be called the killswitch.

Tenay put over "the original organization" and mentioned that if Joey Styles was available he'd gladly give up the chair. They announced RVD vs. Sabu as the main event.

Where are they now segment with Tod Gordon, and showed Gary Wolfe and Blue Meanie doing promos. A.J. Styles talked about the Tommy Dreamer vs. Sandman angle which was way before AJ was ever a wrestling fan talking about ECW moments that influenced him. This was really a stretch. Styles put over . Angelina Love said she never saw ECW in Toronto until the last year. She loved the great crowd reactions.

Al Snow yelled at Head for chanting those letters or Jerry will get mad. Snow said there are a lot of legal issues with this show. Mike Bucci was there as Nova. Snow said you can't used the shirt. Ask about Simon Dean gimmick. A fake Blue Meanie showed up. Brought up how in Roseanne they changed the daughter. Snow got mad they didn't use the real guy while Nova said it's pro wrestling and it doesn't matter. Stevie said tonight is a night to prove what Stevie Richards can really do. There was a guy picking his nose and the fake Blue Meanie picked the guys nose and then they picked each others' noses. This segment was pretty bad.

C.W. Anderson vs. Too Cold Scorpio

It was painfully obvious both were rusty and not in their best shape, but they tried. Scorpio still did good athletic spots, winning with a moonsault that ended almost like a double foot stomp for the pin.

Madison Rayne said how there are a lot of similarities between that promotion and TNA. Matt Morgan said he lived in the Jersey Shore in the summer when he was in college. He went to an ECW show at the bar when he was bouncing and it was a cool experience. Mr. Anderson said that Philadelphia based wrestling promotion brought something different, edgy, different, violent.

RVD and Fonzie. Fonzie looked really old. RVD said he had to give a lot of thought about who he'd wrestle. RVD said there are a lot of storylines not complete from his TV title run, but tonight's about one night to pay tribute. RVD said it had to be Sabu. Well, that was the obvious choice for the main event. Fonzie said he'd call it right down the middle. Fonzie said it would be one of the greatest matches of all-time.

Justin Credible as P.J. Polaco, talked about being a tag team partner with Lance Storm and later became heavyweight champion vs. Steveir Richards with Nova and the fake Blue Meanie in the corner. Blue Tilly (Big Tilly from Phi Delta Slam and the fat security guard).

Richards won via pin with a superkick. Polaco said, "That's not the coolest, that's not the best, that's Justin" but before he could say Credible and get sued, the superkick came. Richards was in better shape physically than I've ever seen him. Credible wasn't in good shape. They did a decent match.

Polaco laid him out with cane shots after the match. Lights out and Sandman was in. Polaco mised a cane shot, leg sweep by Sandman and cane shot to the head.Sandman looked in pretty bad shape. Sandman broke one cane and stood over him.

Francine with short hair, showed her daughter said happy as wife and mother and thanked TNA for sending a camera crew. Said she had a 15 year run and had the best time and thanked people, said I'm done in wrestling.

They went to honor those who aren't with us any longer without mentioning any names.

3-way dance: Brother Runt vs. Al Snow w/Head vs. Rhino

Probably the best match so far but still came off more like comedy. Including a spot where Snow and Runt both pretended to be knocked out from phantom chair shots (kind of like an Eddy Guerrero spot). Runt first pinned Snow with the climb up the rope bulldog and seconds later, Rhino used the gore on Spike.

Mick Foley was reading Hulk Hogan's autobiography and did a promo talking about being the ref.

Magnus said they knew how to raise the bar and explore other avenues to get yourself known. Didn't have a huge budget, huge production. Chris Sabin said he saw Sabu vs. Terry Funk in a barbed wire match late at night on TV and he was hooked. Said it was fun to watch. He said they inspired him and when he was growing up, Van Dam was his favorite and he called himself Josh Van Dam and his friend Matt Tu as Sabu.

Axl Rotten & Kahonus (can't call him Balls Mahoney) vs.

Place chanted Balls of course. Rotten looks good, for him. Balls said they were the most hardcore tag team in wrestling, the most extreme tag team in history and complained they don't have a match. They challenged anyone in the back. Joel Gertner out with the Dudleys intheir old outfits. Gertner in a coat you'd have to see to believe and shorts. And a pink neck brace.

This as far as wrestling goes was really bad, but the crowd loved it because it was like a tribute deal with all the weapons shots and trademark shots. They did use chair shots to the head and were pulling them to be safe to the point they probably shouldn't have done it because the crowd kind of groaned. The finish saw 3-D spray a table filled with lighter fluid, set it on fire and power bombed Kahones. through it.

Bubba said that they proved they were the best tag team in the world. The Gangstas showed up. They laid out 3-D with espons shots including a stapel gun. Played the music while doing a beatdown. They borke a crutch over Bubba. They used a kitchen sink. New Jack hit Gertner with a guitar and Gernter is dead. Then everyone hugged when it was over and the crowd chanted "Thank you."

Raven did a storyline talking about growing up with Tommy Dreamer. He stole his girl, married her and his a family and the life he should have had. He said as smart as Tommy is, he's smarter. Well, last Thursday's TV show kind of proved that he's probably smarter than Tommy.

Jesse Neal said he saw some of the PPVs as a kid and saw them in Kissimmee, FL. Frankie Kazarian said he started in Malden, MA with Kowalski and remembers Chris Candido, Lance Storm and Jerry Lynn chain wrestling with them. Said he was a huge fan of that era and wanted to be part of that era. Claimed the roots of the X Division, Styles, Joe, Daniels and said it came from RVD & Jerry Lynn matches. They did a sound edit when he said ECW. Bubba said he wished Joey Styles was announcing the show. RVD and Jerry Lynn thanked Joey Styles. Simon Diamond, Rhino, Sandman, Stevie Richards and Tommy Dreamer also thanked him. That was a nice tribute. Taz then said that he didn't make the cut in the package but that Joey's announcing made people think he was a bad ass.

Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer with Mick Foley as referee

I was really sad watching this. I watched all the stuff when this was a big deal and it really felt like watching Bobo and The Sheik when they were 60. They bled like crazy. The crowd was into it at times and at other times they were just bleeding and the crowd was quiet. There was so much interference it was hard to keep track so it was overbooked but Nova, Blue Tilly and Lupus interfered. Dreamer was handcuffed but still did a DDT at one point. Beulah was at ringside with the kids and when Dreamer was bleeding they took the kids out. Beulah came out at the finish but Raven still used a chair on Dreamer and eventually Raven won with the DDT. Dreamer got a real big reaction leaving with Beulah. This is really a tribute show because if this wasn't an ECW tribute show and these matches were on, people would be crapping on a lot of this show.

Gangstas with Jeremy Borash. SoCal Val left with Muhammed so New Jack wanted Jeremy to be his bitch and left with him.

Paul Heyman tribute now. Raven said he and Paul were the DeNiro and Sorcese of wrestling as they would think of things identically.

RVD vs. Sabu will headline the show

They had a long match. Sabu put on a good performance as far as being physically in shape and doing enough of the old Sabu stuff. The match dragged and went too long but they did the tables and a lot of the ECW spots including Sabu doing a triple jump moonsault. RVD won clean with the frog splash. Fonzie was right down the middle. They hugged when it was over. Sabu was busted up in the back of the head and sold the ribs something fierce. Not sure if he's hurt, as he could just be doing a more professional job of selling the frog splash than anyone does today. As far as wrestling went, this blew away everything on the show. They did a lot of big moves but it did some off like an exhibition of moves and was never an intense wrestling match. But for this crowd and this night anything they would have done would have worked and they both worked really hard.

Now everyone is out ihn the ring doing a beer bash. Crowd is chanting "Thank you." Everyone came out drinking together including Gertner who was out there not selling anything. The crowd is chanting "Fuck you Vince" and they showed Dixie Carter who seemed happy.

Tommy Dreamer thanked Mike Tenay, Tazz, everyone watching, thanked Atlas, thanked Dxie Carter who was holding up a beer. Fans were chating thank you Dixie and Bubba picked up Dixie to celebrate. There was a Dixie chant and a TNA chant. Dreamer said for those who said we were too old and couldn't do it, it was a fn great PPV. Well, the nostalgia made it different but the sad part is the wrestling was really bad. I think for people who were inclined to buy it, they appreciated seeing it but there was a lot of sadness at the same time.